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Artsy Fartsy Friendly Fun

A story of friends, two young artists at heart
Inspired together, though so far apart

Maria just loved to Believe Dream Create
A Colorful Journey was Carolyn’s fate

They arted their artiness each other week
And found that a challenge is what they would seek

So then they decided that it would be fun
To both do a challenge — and do the same one!

A painting palooza!  A stencil sensation!
A wonderful, colorful, co-llaberation!

The challenge was chosen and neither could wait
To see what their wonderful friend would create

The paint started flying; the spray-ink did too
And stencils and pencils and glitter and glue

And when it was over, I’m sure you can guess
That one thing that both of them made was a mess

A beautiful mess, which is how you can know
You’re properly using your art studio

So please check it out, because now that they’re done
It’s artsy and fartsy and friendly and fun!

I have been blessed to get to know so many amazing people through art. Maria McGuire is one of them.

To those of you who have not met Maria yet, she writes great tutorials and has an elegant sense of style.  Here are some of my favorite creations by Maria: stencil and resist,  an amazing tag, canvas wreath oh, I could go on and on with links!

We met at an art retreat and promptly began causing trouble. Since then we’ve found places to meet up and art.  This trouble has been kept on the down low- until now.

Every other week we’re giving ourselves a challenge which will require us to do some shopping together so we have the same supplies.  Yes, we will shop out of duty to our art! 

The rules for challenge #1 is to use the  dancing girls stencil from Coffee Break Design, ribbon, and music.  Since I have been known to have trouble with rules, we do not discipline rule breakers or rule stretchers…

Without further ado, here is my contribution to this challenge-

I have way too much ribbon, especially spools I find on sale…so I took a big piece of red rosin paper (from the hardware store) as my base.  Then I recklessly stitched the ribbons down and put a thin layer of gesso on the top.  It really brought out the stitching.

 

 

 

 

 

My original plan was to use this as a background but that wasn’t going to work.  Instead I cut a scalloped border out of the gesso’d ribbon paper.  A leftover scrap led me to the 3 dancing girls on the ledge & the quote.  I must confess, my Silhouette made it very easy to do that quote with a stencil…

Since I have some kind of weird aversion to white space on my journal pages I had to add color…there were lots of layers.  Not because I was planning carefully but because I couldn’t get the look I had in my head on the paper.  In the end, I am happy with my struggle because it did add some real depth of color and buried my rubber stamping of a sheet music quite nicely.

But it still wasn’t right.  The scallops at the top were too small.  I already glued them down.  I just ripped them off. No guts no glory!  Took a bit of the paper with them, but it was well hidden by more layers of scallops…

Still not quite right. I needed more blue.  A few smears here and there.  With a steady hand (not really, just a really small paint brush) I added blue acrylic paint to the words.  Now it felt complete.

Thanks for joining me on my Artsy Fartsy Friendly Fun Challenge!  Stop on by Maria’s blog and check out what she did!

Have a few moments?  Check out the great posts at Inspire Me Monday and Creative Every Day and Art Journal Every Day!

 

{ 30 comments… add one }

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  • Marja September 10, 2012, 3:33 am

    Hi Carolyn, this is marvelous work. Love the stencil of the dancing ladies very much. I love making stencils by my own too. I looked at the site of Maria and saw beautiful work too. great project of yours.
    Lovely greet
    Marja
    (marjascreativity)

  • Carol and Artmusedog` September 10, 2012, 7:42 am

    Great colors as always and journal cover is looking great with wonderful quote and dancing gals ~ fun post ~ (A Creative Harbor)

  • Ginny September 10, 2012, 8:33 am

    I think this such an inspiring post. How wonderful to meet someone that you can share your love of art with as well as inspire and challenge each other. I love what you created. It makes me want to dance to the music in my life.

  • Carin September 10, 2012, 9:02 am

    What a fun thing to do! I’m always amazed when I watch somebody do something completely different with similar materials or tools, so this is a really cool experiment! Love the page too!

  • Maria McGuire September 10, 2012, 9:36 am

    I was already so excited to get up and see what you did, but I actually felt like dancing (on a Monday morning no less) after I saw this! Your girls are dangerous 🙂 dancing on a ledge like that! Love the way you used the ribbon and made your own stencil for the title. This is going to be FUN!

  • Gina September 10, 2012, 11:24 am

    What a fun and inspiring journal cover! How great to find another kindred spirit that you can create with and stir up some trouble too! Now I’m off to dance!

  • Rinda September 10, 2012, 11:41 am

    Love the stencil and what you did with it!
    Rinda

  • Valerie-Jael September 10, 2012, 4:10 pm

    This is a real fun piece. Love that stencil, too! Valerie

  • diane September 10, 2012, 5:04 pm

    What a great idea and love the use of the stencil. Beautiful
    Found you on IMM blog hop.
    Diane
    Allthoseartsygirls.blogspot.com

  • Jessica September 10, 2012, 6:04 pm

    I’m dancing as I type — can you tell? This is fantastic and I love the process. I must learn how to sew. What a great way for two amazing artists to inspire each other. Do you think Maria would want to be a guest artist on FF&F?

  • Rita McGregor September 10, 2012, 10:05 pm

    Wild and fun!! 🙂

  • Joy September 10, 2012, 10:34 pm

    Wow, you have such a grest talent. By the way, thanks for the visit:)

  • Sue September 11, 2012, 8:27 am

    What a brilliant idea for ribbon. I also have too much and was going to do some stitching projects with it. I love your dance creation…vibrant and colourful.
    x

  • Linda Starr September 11, 2012, 9:01 am

    The addition of the fabric really makes this piece and what fun to do a project with a friend across the miles, super.

  • annie! September 11, 2012, 11:57 am

    I totally love your challenge page. What great results. But the Dr. Seuss-like poem…PRICELESS. I think you should make a book using the poem and illustrate it as your next challenge with Maria.

  • Bleubeard and Elizabeth September 11, 2012, 3:25 pm

    How fun to have a play with friends you met initially on the internet. What a fun journal page and a great quote for this challenge. I hope to see many more.

  • denni September 11, 2012, 8:25 pm

    Hi Carolyn,
    My favorite philosopher, Winnie the pooh, said “It’s much more friendlier with two.” Your collaboration looks like fun.
    I love the scallops that you made with the ribbon, very creative and colorful. Great post.

  • minnemie September 11, 2012, 8:26 pm

    I love what you do with ribbons and stitching. One of these days I will try it too! This is a very fun journal page.

  • linda September 12, 2012, 9:34 am

    Cool page and cool stencils! I actually really liked the page even before you put the color on the background… the white was cool too!

    • Carolyn September 12, 2012, 10:01 am

      I have to agree!

  • Marjie Kemper September 12, 2012, 12:45 pm

    Love the page, especially the girls on the ledge! Off to check out Maria’s blog. Thanks for sharing!

  • Kristin Van Valkenburgh September 12, 2012, 3:23 pm

    Oh wow! That is VERY cool! LOVE the scallops and the fact that you are doing it together! Oh, AND that poem is so adorable! Bravo, xo!

  • lynn richards September 12, 2012, 5:10 pm

    Amazing, Carolyn. I love your boldness in ripping off the first scallops and then adding more. The page is so much fun!!
    xo
    lynn

  • denizfeneri/lighthouse September 13, 2012, 12:48 pm

    Hello Carolyn. I have just found out about your site.I loved watching the process as you create your art work.Thank you for sharing the secrets:)

  • Zafaran September 14, 2012, 12:37 pm

    This sure seems like a lot of fun! Love all the scallops, colors and the dancing girls!

  • Linda K September 14, 2012, 6:11 pm

    Oh how I LOVE this!!! That stencil is fabulous-love the whole movement and joy it brings to your page!

  • Tracy September 14, 2012, 6:34 pm

    Looks like you both had great fun! Fabulous page.

  • Create With Joy September 16, 2012, 4:40 pm

    Thanks for the smile and the inspiration – you’ve been featured at Inspire Me Monday this week at Create With Joy! 🙂

  • Cathy/Mutnik June 13, 2013, 5:35 pm

    Super cool Carolyn! Thanks for all the links. My head is full of inspirations!!! Can’t wait to get to my crafting table. Keep up the wonderful fun work you do and again, thanks for sharing!!!! :0)